Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-04-28
FARM NOTES.

Stable manure, says Professor Cham
berlain, of Iowa, is the best fertilizer on
earth.
Sow your tomato seed in boxes as ear
ly as possible, as there is little time to
lose with early plants.
Potato bugs will eat egg plants if the
potato vines be not plentiful. They also
eat tomato plants.
AS the warm weather comes on avoid
feeding too much corn to the hens, as it
causes them to become too fat, thereby
interfering with egg production.
Prof. Roberts favors free use of cot
ton-seed meal for COWS, on account of its
being good milk producing food and
the gertilizing properties it leaves IN the
droppirgs.
Never use whitewash in the stables or
hen houses unless carbolic acid is added
to it, as single application of the mix
ture is better than two or three applica-
tions of the whitewash alone.
p. j. Berckman, Augusta, Ca, who has
tested thu many varieties of Strawberries,
numbers the following rich sorts that
thrive in moist soils: Sharpless, Wilson,
Downing, Kentucky and Monarch of the
West.
The ounce IS a slow grower. For this
reason it is an advantage to buy trees we'll
grown, say four or five feet high, rather
than mere slips. Such trees will come in
bearing in three or four years, and prove
cheaper in the end than smaller trees at a
lower price.
When leaf mold is used to fill the pots
or make the beds, commercial fertilizers
may suffice, for this mold is made up
mostly of vegetable matter. But it is
well 10 remember that plants do best in a
soil well supplied with humus.
If you contemplate cultivating the soil
in your orchard, and have not already
prepared for it, have some short whipple-
trees made with hooks on the backs near
the ends so that the traces will pass over
the ends of tho whippletrees to prevent
barking the trees.
most excellent flower is the double
white balsam. Not the old-fashioned
ones that grew in your grandmother
gardens, but those that are perfectly
double; they are as useful in boquet-mak-
ing as camellas, and, if wired, they can
be worked as readily as any flower.
To dig up fruit tree by cutting a
circle with spade, half foot in diam
eter, cuts off more than nine tenths of
the roots; and to spade little circle
about a young tree not one-quarter as
far as the roots extend and call 1t Guilt
walton is like Flagstaff's men claiming
spurs and shirt collars for complete
suit.
There is one branch of stock raising
which Is not by any means overdone, and
that is the raising of mules. AS the scope
of the agricultural country in the United
States increases the greater the demand
for animals suited for draft purposes,
and it is an acknowledged fact that in many
sections the mule has as many friends as
the horse for this object. The great ar
guments in favor of mules are their hardi-
ness, endurance and the ease with which
they can be sold.
Enough attention is seldom paid to
surroundings in fattenIng stock. Good
feed, although of first importance, is not
all that is required. Regularity of feed
ing has much to do with easy fattening
CATTLE housed and kept warm will thrive
and fatten rapidly; but, at the same time
they need exercise, and should be let out
daily for it. Fattening hogs ought to be
kept from dampness and wet. The bed
especially should be dry and warm
Watering regularly will also greatly aid in
fattening stock. 1t is true that stock will
fatten under neglect, but at an expense
of more feed and at a greater loss than if
proper care and attention are used
Sheep needs more venttlations in their
sheds or barns than any other stock, for
if kept In poorly ventilated quarters they
are apt TO contract colds and diseases,
but they require shelter from storms.